China's power consumption in January-April rose by 6.7 percent from a year ago, 3.8 percentage points higher than the same period last year, signaling a pick-up in economic activities, the country's economic planner said at a press briefing on Thursday.
China's power consumption for the first four months reached 1.93 trillion kilowatt hours (kwh), said Meng Wei, a spokesman for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
The secondary industry (construction, manufacturing) contributed 72 percent to the growth.
Electricity consumption in the secondary industry for the first quarter rose by 6.9 percent over 2016, while power consumption in the primary industry (agriculture) and the tertiary industry (service) went up 6.7 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively.
More specifically, power consumption from information transmission, IT service, and the software industry increased by 14.5 percent.
Household electricity consumption in January-April grew by 3.6 percent year on year.
China's power consumption in April hit 484.7 billion kwh, 6 percent higher than a year earlier.
Power generated from coal and natural gas for the first four months climbed 7.8 percent year on year, while nuclear power production increased by 21.3 percent.
Hydropower output in January-April decreased by 6.1 percent due to a low water flow.
The NDRC also approved 12 fixed-asset investment projects in April with a total value of 141.6 billion yuan (20.6 billion U.S. dollars), which are mainly energy, transportation, water conservancy and high-tech projects, Meng said.
